Re: "Thumbnails" of scanned pages from copyrighted texts

At 08:23 AM 10/18/95 -0700, mary[_at_]sdc.ucsb.edu wrote:
>
> I have a meeting coming up early next week on the legal side of
> displaying over the Web thumbnails (that is, very small images -
> kilobytes) of scanned pages from copyright texts. Judging from
> what is printed on the verso of the title page of the texts:
>
> "Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted
> in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
> photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by an information
> storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
> the publisher."
>
> it seems clear to me that without written permission from the publisher,
> these thumbnails may not be displayed. Is this correct?

The publisher would certainly wish that you reach this conclusion baed on the notice, but the conclusion would be incorrect. You are permitted to do whatever "fair use" permits you to do, which may easily mean that you can do more than what the notice allows.

You can see a Copyright Office circular on fair use gopher://marvel.loc.gov:70/00/copyright/fls/fl102.

---
Carl Oppedahl, oppedahl[_at_]patents.com  Oppedahl & Larson, patent law firm
http://www.patents.com/ is a web server with frequently asked questions 
  and answers on patent law and other intellectual property subjects